Water heater



June 21 1927.

L.,F. DAVIS ET AL.

'WATER HEATER Filed Au 28, 1923 Patented June 21, 1927. I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEWIST. DAVIS AND LOUIS w.- sonnnrr, or HUNTINGTON BEACH, cum-01mm.

WATER HEATER.

Application filed August 28, 1923. Serial No. 659,735.

Our invention relates to a water heater-of the type generally used for domestic and household purposes and the principal ob.- jects of our invention are to generally improve upon and simplify the construction of the existing forms of household water heaters; to provide a water heater that is characterized by rapidity of operation, minimum fuel consumption, simplicty of construction and relatively low cost of manufacture and, further to provide a heater of view, our invention consists in certain novel features of construction and arrangement of parts that will .be hereinafter more fully described and claimed and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical-section taken lengthwise through the center of a water heater of our improved construction.

Fig. 2. is an enlarged horizontal section taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a detail vertical section of a modified form of the spirally arranged water circulation duct that forms a part of our invention.

Referring by numerals to the accompanying drawings 10 designates a substantially cylindrical upright tank of the standard or conventional form used in household water heaters and said tank being provided with a cold Water supply pipe 11 and a hot water outlet pipe 12. y Extending axially through the tank 10 is a tubular flue 13 through which is adapted to pass the heated air and products of combustion from a burner 14, and which latter may be of any desired type or form that utilizes gas or li uid hydro-carbon'as fuel.

Leading from t 1e upper end of this heating fine 13 to a suitable outlet is a vent pipe Spirally disposed about the tubular flue 13 and spaced a slight distance therefrom is a wall 16, the upper edge of which is bent.

inward to form a relatively narrow flange 17 and the inner edge of the latter is secured by welding or otherwise to the flue 13.

wall are spaced a slight distance apartverti- 'cally and thus, thenarrow space18 betwe'n the wall and flue, communicates through a relatively narrow, spirally arranged opening or slot 20 with the water space or chamber Within tank 10.

The lower end of this wall 16 terminates a few inches above thebottom of't-an'k 10, and likewise the upper end of said wall terminates a few inches below the top or head of said tank. i

The construction just described provides a relatively narrow duct or passageway that is spirally disposedfabout the heating flue for the greater portion of its length and said duct being open at its lower end so as to communicate through the narrow spirally .disposed slot 20 with the narrow water space flue 13, the corners formed at the ends of the angularly bent portions make contact with the inner surface of said flue as illus trated in Fig.2.

When our improved water heater is in service and burner 14 is lighted heated air and products of combustion pass upward through flue 13, thereby-heating the latter and the baffle member 21.

The angularly bent portions of the battle member tend to deflect and throw the heat rays outward in opposite directions against oppositely disposed portions of the flue 13 and such action very rapidly heats the relatively thin wall or film of water within the spirally disposed duct 18, thereby producing an upward flow of heated water in amount of water will enter the lower en of duct 18.

The relatively narrow slot 20at thebottom of duct 18 permits a certain amount of the rapidly heated water that arises through duct 18, to flow outwardly into the 1 water space within the tank, thereby greatly The convolutions of this spirally disposedenhancing thetransfer or exchange of heat units between the relatively hot and cooler portions of the body of water and conse quent-ly greatly accelerating the heating of the entire volumeof Water.

In some instances the spirally disposed circulation duct may be formed by spirally arranging an inclined strip on the heating flue as illustrated in Fig. 3.

Thus it will be seen that we have provided a household water heater that is of relatively simple structure, capable of being easily and cheaply produced and which .is very efiective in performing its intended functions.

While we have shown and described the preferred constructions embodying the principles of our invention it will be understood that the details of construction may be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of our invention, the

2. In a water heater, a tank, a heating flue extending vertically therethrough, a spirally arranged flat member surrounding said flue and contacting therewith along its upper longitudinal edge, said spirally arranged member depending from its contacting upper edge so as to form between it and said flue a spiral duct and the lower longitudinal edge of said spirally arranged member being spaced from the flue and from the upper edge so as to form a oommunicating opening that extends along the entireloweredge of said spirally disposed member.

3. In a water heater, a tank, a'heating flue extending vertically" therethrough, a spirally arranged flat member surrounding said flue and contacting therewith along its upper longitudinal edge, said spirally arranged member depending from its contacting upper edge so as to form between it and said flue, a spiral duct, the lower longitudinal edge of said spirally arranged member being spaced from the flue and from the upper edge so as to form a communicating opening that extends along the entire lower edge of said spirally disposed member anda heat reflecting member disposed Within said flue and extending substantially throughout the'length of the spirally disposed duct on the exterior of said flue.-

4. The combination with w'a tank, of a heating flue extending axially therethrough, a spirally arranged restricted water flow duct on the wall of the flue, a heater located at the lower end of the-flue and a zi'g-zag bafile plate formed of a strip of sheet metal positioned lengthwise of the heating flue for facilitating rapid heating of the water in the restricted water flow duct.

In testimony whereof we afiix our sig natures. i i

' LEWIS- F. DAVIS. LOUIS w. SCHNEPP. 

